While the installation of wood and coal burning stoves, furnaces, and fireplaces has long provided heat for homes, their use was largely discontinued in most homes in favor of other heating means. Recently, however, as a result of the shortage and high cost of alternate fuels such as natural gas, oil, and the like, such devices have again become relatively popular. In addition, wood burning fireplaces, although infrequently relied upon for their heating ability, have become prized for their aesthetics, and are widely used for that reason. A major disadvantage of such appliances, however, is their unfortunate tendency to create impartially burned by-products, including soot, creosote, and the like, which tend to accumulate on the interior of the flues used to dispose of the gases created in the burning process. Over a period of time, the deposited layer of such materials in the flues becomes quite thick, and it can lead to disasterous fires which not only damage the chimney flues in which they take place, but can actually result in destruction of the house in which the flues are located. Every year many such fires occur, and the cleaning of chimney flues to remove soot and creosote deposits is recommended on a periodic basis, sometimes as often as every month. Individuals engaged in the process of cleaning chimneys are known as "chimney sweeps" , and the process itself if termed "chimney sweeping". Chimney sweeping is carried out in a variety of ways, for example, by the use of rod-mounted brushes which are assembled in successive sections as the brushes are pushed through the chimney to dislodge the deposits described. Other methods, such as for instance, lowering chains or gunny sacks filled with rocks into the chimney, where they are vigorously moved up and down, have also been relied upon, as have other techniques. Such methods, however, have the disadvantage of requiring the chimney sweep to climb to the roof of the dwelling, a dangerous undertaking, particularly in inclement weather. Because of the expense and inconvenience of the cleaning methods described, chimney flues are not cleaned as frequently or as well as they should be to avoid the dangers described. Furthermore, hand cleaning techniques which depend upon the manual skills of the chimney sweep are oftentimes not particularly conducive to thoroughly removing the unwanted deposits.
In addition to the manual methods of chimney cleaning, some semi-automated methods have also been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 1,777,815, for example, teaches a system and device which can be operated from ground level. The device therein disclosed, however, has certain disadvantage, among which may be mentioned the fact that it cannot be adjusted to accomodate different chimney sizes, and it provides no way in which the moveable carrier chain contemplated by the device can be tightened to provided sufficient tension to allow it to be passed over the pulleys which the device relies upon for its process of cleaning. The device of the patent also depends upon the action of scraping blades, rather than a brush, and the positioning of the carrier chain taught precludes the use of commonly available brushes due to the incompatible positioning of the chain.